Costco offers dental insurance to members in Arizona, California, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington.

Members who wish to enroll under Costco’s dental plan will have to find an in-network dentist to attend to them because it is mandatory. This is the case with HMO-style plans. 

The policy covers a wide array of services at affordable costs, but Costco’s dental plan may not cover some services at all. 

Plan Coverage

It is easy to assume all insurance plans are the same, but this isn’t the case. Typically, insurance policies are tasked with covering a portion of your medical expenses or the entire cost, depending on your coverage.

The same applies to dental insurance; however, dental insurance policies are not as extensive as other health policies. So you must have a clear idea of your policy’s coverage.

Any dental insurance plan should cover three areas:

1. Routine and Preventive Care

2. Emergency Care

3. Complex Care

Costco’s dental insurance plans cover routine and preventive care procedures such as cleaning for little to no co-pay. However, many users found this unusual because most dental insurance policies free preventive and routine procedures.

The insurance plan also covers complex procedures such as orthodontics, braces, and dentures.

But like many dental plans out there, their plan does not cover every service. For example, dental implants are not covered under Costco’s insurance plan. 

It is advisable that your revise what is covered in any insurance policy you wish to subscribe to. 

However, Costco advises you to speak with your dentist before receiving treatment from anyone else. Your dentist is authorized to refer you to another practitioner in case of an emergency.

In addition to this, if you cannot contact your dentist, you are expected to call Delta to care the USA for a referral. 

Sometimes, you cannot reach either your dentist or a Delta care agent. In such cases, policy users have limited to $100 per emergency / out-of-state treatment as part of their insurance benefit.

Cost

Any insurance plan you register under should be affordable. Many people can argue that affordability is relative. 

In this context, affordable means any amount that is inexpensive to you. You can pay it without your bank account taking a hit. 

While the company website doesn’t explicitly mention the cost of their insurance plans, we assume they are inexpensive based on other factors.

The most important factor is the number of people subscribed to Costco’s insurance plan via DeltaCare. If so many people can subscribe to it, it must be affordable and of good quality. 

However, we came across a customer review who mentioned their cost on Costco’s dental plan totaling $90/year. 

This may not be the case today, as the comment was three years ago. The best way to find out what you will be paying for Costco’s dental plan is to get a quote.

Other Benefits- Waiting Period, Annual Deductibles, And Annual Maximums

Three benefits that make Costco stand out from other companies are that you enjoy no waiting period, no annual deductibles, and annual maximums.

A waiting period is the amount of time you have to wait before your coverage comes into effect. For example, this period could be 6-12 months. 6 months for routine and preventive care, and 12 months for complex and emergency care. Costco’s no waiting period means you can enjoy your insurance benefits immediately.

Most insurance policies have limitations, such as deductibles and maximums. Deductibles are specified amounts you pay before your insurance company takes up your costs. 

Some insurance providers have high deductibles that clients may not exhaust before their policy year runs out. 

Because of this, they never get to enjoy the benefits of their insurance plans. For example, Costco Dental Insurance doesn’t have deductibles meaning they chip in on your dental bills right away. 

And the last great thing about Costco’s dental plan is the no annual maximum feature. This means that there is no dollar limit on how much they can spend on your dental costs within a year. 

This could come in handy if you were going through some major procedures. However, they are usually expensive and could quickly exhaust your annual maximum. 

Once an insurance company reaches your dollar limit for the year, you go back to covering your costs out-of-pocket.

Your Dental History

Before opening your wallet to pay for dental insurance, the last thing to consider is your dental history.

Some might say this is the most important thing to consider when registering for dental insurance. 

The objective of any insurance policy is to indemnify the insured in case of an unforeseen event, usually a negative one. 

Insurance companies are hopeful that you won’t need to claim on your policy, and truthfully, so do you. Nobody wants to get in an accident or lose their property to a fire breakout. 

If your dental health is nothing to worry about, you may not need to get insurance. It would be more advisable to continue with your oral hygiene practices and use your money on something else instead of premiums. 

But as we mentioned earlier, insurance covers probable events. So there is a 50% chance that it may never happen and an equal possibility that it will. 

So to truly get value for your money, try to determine the likelihood that such an event will occur. 

Final Thoughts – Costco Dental Insurance Is A Good Value 

In our opinion, Costco’s dental insurance is of good value; not only is the plan affordable, but it also has a wide coverage. 

Costco skips waiting periods, deductibles, and annual maximums, unlike most plans. This allows customers to enjoy their benefits right away without limitations. 

Not to mention there is provision for out-of-state or emergency treatments. 

On the downside, the plan is limited to Costco members within a few states in the US. It is also mandatory you use a dentist within the plan’s network. 

This may cause you to replace your long-time dentist if they aren’t part of the network’s plan. 

If you can overlook these negatives, Costco’s dental plan is a plan to subscribe to. 

The post Is Buying Private Dental Insurance Through Costco A Good Value? appeared first on Insurance BlogX.

High Costs

America has some of the most skilled professionals in the health sector; it is no surprise that their services will be costlier compared to what you will get will, junior professionals. 

Dental procedures are generally expensive whether conducted by a highly trained professional or not. Now imagine getting a bill worth thousands of dollars and discovering that your insurance company won’t take up the cost.

You may be surprised to find out that many people turn down recommended dental procedures and trips to the dentist due to cost concerns, including people who have dental coverage.

If you repeatedly experience such a situation, you may wonder why you have dental insurance at all and thus avoid getting dental care.

The sad thing about this is poor oral hygiene can lead to other health issues. Skipping preventive and routine dental visits reduces your chances of spotting potential health threats. 

Another issue is that most people don’t know how to differentiate between an issue that requires immediate attention and something that can be postponed or even ignored. Unfortunately, some dentists won’t tell you. 

They will bombard you with a list of issues relating to your teeth which truthfully may not be much of an issue. However, since you don’t know what needs to be done and what can be put off for later, you may end up spending more than you need to on your dental visits. 

Poor Coverage

A staggering 38% of baby boomers do not have dental insurance, and they say this is because their insurance does not cover it. Most citizens in this age group use Medicare as it is one of the oldest and most reputable insurance providers of their time. 

Medicare provides limited coverage where dental health is concerned. They may provide coverage for some emergency procedures during inpatient stays. However, most dental procedures like cleanings or extractions are not covered.

Low Income

Unfortunately, dental insurance does not fall under the Obamacare Act, but it is available under some health care plans or offered as a standalone policy. 

Most individuals who do not have dental coverage wish they did and even admitted they wished they took better care of their teeth. 

Three in ten Americans will regret not making better oral hygiene choices, which is common with low-income earners. In households that make less than $5000 a year pretax, ValuePenguin discovered that an average of 34% experience oral care-related sadness. 

This percentage is for people who do not have dental insurance. For the people who are fortunate to have some dental coverage but are still unhappy with their teeth, the percentage is lesser- 17%.

No need for Insurance 

Let’s look at the other side of the story; not everyone is unhappy with the state of their teeth. On the contrary, some people love their teeth, and it’s not just for cosmetic reasons but because their teeth are genuinely healthy. 

Because their teeth are healthy, they don’t have any reason to visit a dentist more than twice a year, talk less of signing up for dental insurance. These people would save more money paying out of pocket for their occasional dental visits than paying premiums on dental insurance. 

This brings us to the next point on why dental insurance in the US is awful- there are cheaper alternatives. 

Not anyone can perform a root canal; you need to visit a trained dental professional. However, not all your dental needs require the services of a dentist, and even they do, there are affordable places to get such services. 

A quick search on google can yield results for clinics that charge less than what you will spend on premiums for “free” routine and preventive care procedures.

The table below contains dental-related regrets of American citizens. 

Now that we have analyzed the problem, the next step is to proffer some solutions. Dental Insurance in the US might be bad, but can it be improved? The answer is yes, it can.

We think the first and most important step is to create to tackle the current state of dental coverage in Medicaid. Medicaid is a key player in the insurance industry, and its user population is over 24 million. 

This means that over 24 million people in the US population have no dental coverage. Those who do get it from other sources such as Medicaid or Medicare Advantage plans. 

To create a dental benefit program under Part B of Medicare’s insurance plans, efforts have been made. A second option is to offer dental services under a new voluntary part of the program. 

The US is in a dental health crisis, and it is negatively affecting its residents’ lives. Unfortunately, most people avoid dental routines due to costs, even when they have insurance.

It is even more saddening that a key player such as Medicare has no defined dental coverage plan for its users, leaving them to get this service from other sources. Fortunately, efforts are being made to provide dental coverage for their users.

Sources

9 Secrets Dental Insurance Companies don’t Want you to Know

Why Dental Insurance is so Unspeakably Awful

Luxury Vs. Necessity: The US Dental Care Dilemma

Reasons to Ditch Dental Insurance

Policy Options for Improving Dental Coverage for People on Medicare

ValuePenguin Dental Survey

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